President Obama Suggests Right-to-Work Legislation Infringes on Collective Bargaining Rights — But Is That True?

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President Barack Obama on Monday took aim at the right-to-work legislation Gov. Rick Snyder (R-Mich.) and Republican legislators are expected to pass Tuesday, claiming that such laws are more about politics than they are about economics.

“What we shouldn’t be doing is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages,” the president told an enthralled audience in Redford, Mich. “These so-called right-to-work laws, they don’t have anything to do with economics, they have to do with politics.”

“What they’re really talking about is to give you the right to work for less money,” he added.

Like ​all ​other right-to-work bills, the bill Gov. Snyder is expected to sign tomorrow protects non-union employees from having to financially support labor unions.

Here’s the legal definition of right-to-work: “Right-to-work laws forbid unions and employers to enter into agreements requiring employees to join a union and pay dues and fees to it in order to get or keep a job.”

At this point, it is unclear how right-to-work laws would infringe on a union’s ability to engage in collective bargaining as President Obama suggests.